Investigating Brain Function in People With and Without Visual Snow Syndrome Using Adaptation to Visual Stimuli

Summary

The goal of this study is to learn more about the brain pathways and activity involved in creating Visual Snow Syndrome (VSS). The main questions it aims to answer are:

* Does VSS arise from spontaneous activity in brain pathways?
* Where in the brain does the activity contributing to VSS arise?
* How does brain activity contribute to VSS?

Participants will:

1. Undergo assessments and questionnaires to understand visual and mental symptoms, cognitive, and sensory function.
2. Make visual judgements based on images presented to them both inside and outside a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine.
3. Undergo scanning of their brain while inside of an MRI machine.

Conditions

• Visual Snow Syndrome
• Migraine
• Healthy

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Visual Adaptation

Presentation of visual stimuli to quantify the appearance of visual snow or its effects in the visual system of the brain.

BEHAVIORAL

Assessments and Questionnaires

Administration of clinical assessments and questionnaires to gather information about visual and mental symptoms, cognitive, and sensory function.

DEVICE

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

7 tesla fMRI data will be acquired during visual paradigms designed to measure neural responses with and without adaptation.

DEVICE

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRS)

7 tesla MRS data will be acquired to quantify the concentrations of different brain chemicals in brain regions including visual cortex.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institutes of Health (NIH)

  collaborator NIH

• Mayo Clinic

  collaborator OTHER

• National Eye Institute (NEI)

  collaborator NIH

• University of Minnesota

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Michael-Paul Schallmo, Ph.D. · University of Minnesota, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

• Stephen A Engel, Ph.D. · University of Minnesota, Department of Psychology

• Michael S Lee, M.D. · University of Minnesota, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Neurosciences

• Abby Metzler, M.D. · University of Minnesota, Department of Neurology

• Malgorzata Marjanska, Ph.D. · University of Minnesota, Department of Radiology

• Carrie E Robertson, M.D. · Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Department of Neurology

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

60 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-04-11

Primary Completion

2030-03-31

Completion

2030-03-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations